Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou was the capital of the Mossi Empire before the French arrived—and it became the capital of Burkina Faso because the Mossi's political structures were too entrenched to bypass. The Mossi kingdoms, established in the 11th century, governed the central Volta plateau from Ouagadougou (the seat of the Mogho Naba, or paramount chief) for over 800 years. When the French colonized Upper Volta in 1896, they initially moved the capital to Bobo-Dioulasso, a larger commercial centre. They moved it back to Ouagadougou in 1947 because the Mogho Naba's authority—still recognized by millions—made governing from anywhere else impractical.

Thomas Sankara, the revolutionary president who renamed Upper Volta to Burkina Faso ('Land of Upright People') in 1984, made Ouagadougou the base for Africa's most radical experiment in self-reliance. He vaccinated 2.5 million children in 10 days, banned female genital cutting, planted 10 million trees to combat desertification, and refused foreign aid. He was assassinated in 1987 by his deputy, Blaise Compaoré, who ruled for 27 years before being overthrown in 2014. In January 2022, a military coup took power; a second coup followed in September 2022.

Burkina Faso is one of the world's poorest countries, with a GDP per capita under $900. Ouagadougou's 2.8 million residents depend on government employment, informal commerce, and the FESPACO film festival—Africa's largest, held biennially since 1969. Gold mining has become the country's largest export sector, but the revenue largely bypasses the capital. Jihadist insurgency from Mali and Niger has displaced over 2 million people internally.

The Mossi political tradition endures. The Mogho Naba still performs a Friday morning ceremony at his palace, symbolically refusing to flee Ouagadougou—a ritual that predates colonialism. The oldest power structure in the city is also the most stable.